All That Remains: Cenotaph

[Loklorien s'Ilancy]

"A tool and nothing more... "

They were words that echoed through her thoughts, consuming her entire being, almost even. Such a betrayal in the face of the lies that had been told to her for so many long years... had she truly known that his words were false? In the darkest recesses of her heart she had, and yet she chose to ignore the inevitable conclusion. She had let herself fall into his thrall. She had given herself to him in the place of their daughter that he'd said he would take as his own acolyte. His own pawn in this great game of chakesse that he considered his own. Her life and allegiance to the Dark One, to the Man in Black that had pursued her and chased her and sought her, in exchange for that life that had been created because of...

... because of her weakness... ?

Was Teagan a testament to her own weakness? And Markos? Were her two children the manifestations of her need for familial closeness and the desire for an heir to the Losstarot Bloodline?

No.

Her husband... her master... her tormenter... he had woven this tapestry. He had given her the illusion of a life that she had always wanted. An existence that she had craved from her earliest days.

He had known the very things that she most desired, and had given them to her in return for the things that he desired.

But now, with her return, the Lupine found her resolve. She was whole once more. Her fall had been a tragedy, a failure of her own will and resolve. Yet she had known that it would happen... known that she would be taken. And in those moments of her clarity she had done what she could to prepare her old friends and give them the tools they would need to stand against the evil that was Darth Decepis.

And... Darth Acera.

Yet, Acera had been purged. Turned upon by her own Master and left to die an agonizing death, buried beneath the wreckage of Echo Base's destroyed ion canon.

A finger reached up then, to gently press against the top of the scar that bisected her right eye. She let her thoughts return her to the cold of Hoth, and the pure betrayal of her Master. He had left his mark upon her, and as her fingertip slowly ran down the length of his old 'gift', the Lupine prepared herself.

She had one last task to perform.

* * *

The destroyed hulk of Dauntless - General Dan Thrule's seemingly precious ship - smoldered and burbled halfway beneath the waters of the shallow sea that lay to the west of a small mountain chain. Beyond that to the east was a small forest that gave way to Sanctuary. Still in a fledgling stage, the Jedi's new home was still so fragile and delicate. Yet, it had teeth all the same, and those teeth had delivered further damage to the already falling Dauntless, sending it off Decepis' original intended target to instead crash into what had once been a peaceful, beautiful bay.

Previously white sands and crystal blue water were now blackened and littered with twisted metal, destroyed sections of the ship that had broken apart, and the unmistakable mangled flesh of so many bodies. It was a landscape of death, the bay's waters discolored with muck, lubricants, debris, and destroyed life. There was no silence in this new hellscape of despair and death. The screeching of durasteel as it settled, the hissing of so much steam releasing from the bay's waters that'd been boiled by the wreckage, the beginning siren of helpless and stricken voices - the voices of those poor souls who had been lucky enough to survive the collision between ship and planet... it was all a chorus of despair, destruction, and heartbreak.

There was one among the survivors though that could not be heard, however.

But she knew that he was alive.

She knew that his presence still clung to the world of the living with such tenacity and determination.

* * *

The wreckage on the beach was largely ignored, and the woman who walked through and around it was quiet. She took in the sounds around her with grim determination.

She had shed her duty jacket, leaving it in the old Nu-class shuttle that had ferried her down to the planet. She had no blaster, having left that in the shuttle as well.

Instead, a gauntlet. In the other hand, a bent-hilt saber. All three emitters were silent and lifeless.

For now, she was looking and searching.

She could feel him still, feel his life within the Force pulsing with so much hate and rage.

She slowed to a stop, casting her gaze to either side of her. Such destruction, such death. All for one man's desire for control.

* * *

Ten minutes later found her standing on a small outcropping of rock, overlooking the wreckage of Dauntless.

Such a waste of life.